I was abused in Nottingham children's homes, actress Samantha Morton says

Award-winning British actress Samantha Morton, who spent much of her childhood in a succession of children's homes in Nottingham, central England, has revealed she was sexually abused by care home saff and said she believed abuse was rife within that city's children's services.

Morton, 37, said she reported one particular incident, in which two men jointly abused her when she was 13, to Nottinghamshire police and social services shortly after it happened, but no formal investigation was undertaken. The men were allowed to stay in their jobs, while she was abruptly moved to another home.

She said she was recently shocked to be told by police that her records from the time contained only a reference to "frolicking", rather than recording the serious child abuse allegations she had made.

The actor chose to speak out, she said, after it emerged last month that an estimated 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. "We know it's rife but why are there not further investigations into other areas? It isn't just Rotherham," Morton said.

She had told social workers about "all sorts of sexual abuse that happened to me from a very, very young age", she said, but no action had ever been taken.